Tweetable facts about Twitter's IPO

NEW YORK (AP) - Twitter has redefined the way we communicate, get news and share tidbits of our lives. It has even been credited with starting a revolution or two. The company, based in San Francisco, announced Thursday that it intends to sell stock to the public for the first time. Naturally, it did it via a tweet.

Here are some quick facts about Twitter in 140 characters or less, the limit of tweets.

_ MT (at)Twitter We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.

_ (hash)FunFact: In the first hour of (at)Twitter sending that IPO announcement tweet, 7,872 people retweeted the message.

_ According to (at)APStylebook: "The verb is to tweet, tweeted. A Twitter message is known as a tweet."

_ The company was founded 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Their handles: (at)Jack, (at)Biz and (at)Ev

_ First tweet by (at)Jack was "just setting up my twttr" on March 21, 2006, at 3:50 p.m.

_ Dorsey went on to create (at)Square, a system for paying for coffee, goods through phones.

_ Twitter soared to popularity in 2007 at the South By Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas. (hash)sxswinteractive (hash)Austin (hash)BBQ

_ Three years, two months and one day: The time it took from the first tweet to the billionth tweet. (hash)CoolStat

_ Users on (at)Twitter: More than 200 million. (at)Facebook has 1.16 billion. That's nearly six times as many. (hash)QuickMath

_ A billion tweets are sent every two and a half days. Put another way, that's three for every man, woman and child in the U.S. via (at)smfrogers

_ The public offering comes at a time of heightened investor interest in the IPO market _ 131 IPOs have priced so far this year.

_ Is (at)Twitter trying to avoid (at)Facebook's May 2012 IPO (hash)fail? Well, company is keeping details secret for now. (hash)TwitterIPO

_ The company hasn't said if it makes a profit or how much revenue it takes in. (hash)FadOrFuture? Wonder if (at)WarrenBuffett will buy stock.

_ Most of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising. (at)eMarketer estimates $582.8 million this year, up from $288.3 million in 2012.